She Walks In Beauty
by Mallory1
Summary: The collision of two lives. The pairing of this fic is Brooke and Haley. If you can't handle love between two women, please don't read.
1. Chapter One

A/N: If you don't like the pairing, please don't read the fic. And don't flame. It's just not nice. 

**She Walks in Beauty   
by Mallory**

Haley always likes the first day of school, especially today; it's her last first day of high school. Yes, Haley has always liked the first day of school; it's just the days that come after it, the second, and the third, the fifteenth, and the eightieth, that she cannot stand. 

And it's not because Haley's not good at school – unlike Nathan, who hates school because he has to work hard to manage a C average – it's because she is bored. Haley wants excitement. Haley wants intrigue. Damn it, Haley wants something. If only that something wasn't so ambiguous. 

At the beginning of the day, first thing, they go to administrative homeroom. In Haley's there is a Jackson, a Jacobsen, Jake Jaglieski, two other Jameses and a Jahnke. Mrs. Smythe passes out their schedules. 

Haley and Jake are in the same philosophy class, and Haley thinks that Jake must be one cool philosophical dude, so they slap hands. Haley says, "All right," and Jake says, "Rock on." 

Philosophy is her first period, which means that her regular homeroom will be in – she checks her schedule – Mr. Stone's classroom. She thinks Lucas is in that class, too, or, at least, he signed up for it; she supposes she'll know in about half an hour and they can compare schedules then. 

The rest of her schedule isn't much to talk about. Just Calculus, then AP European History, then Ethics, then Lunch, then her free, then AP Spanish, then English. 

Haley wonders if her life had just suddenly became boring or if her life was always this boring, and it only just started to bother her? 

Lucas is there in her philosophy class and they pick seats right next to each other (on her other side, Peyton sat down, and next to her, Jake). "Let me see your schedule," Haley says, holding out her hand. 

Lucas passes his over. 

"Damnit," says Haley. "We're only in two of the same classes. Ethics and Philosophy." 

"What?" says Lucas. 

"Yeah, 'cause you're not taking Calculus – you were always better at reading then you were at arithmetic – you're not taking AP European History, because you took that in the tenth grade when I took World History, we actually have lunch together – that's good – during my free you have French, and then – wait. It says here you have AP English sixth period. That's when I have Spanish. And then – wait. I must be in regular English." 

She looks at Lucas in horror. 

"I'm supposed to be in AP Lit," she says. "I love English. It's my favorite subject! I'm always in the honors classes for English. Ever since we were in the first grade! Do you remember that Lucas? Remember how they first put me in the dumb reading group and then they saw how well I could read and they moved me to the smart reading group? You remember that. I'm not meant for the dumb reading group. Not in elementary school. Not here. Not ever." 

Lucas looks at his friend sympathetically. He does indeed remember when she was put in the 'dumb' reading group. He also remembers the temper tantrum she threw when she found out that she was in a lower level group. 

He says, "Why don't you go talk to your guidance counselor?" 

"Yeah," Haley says, "Yeah. I suppose – Yeah. That's a good idea." 

She goes to the guidance counselor in between first and second periods. The guidance counselor is an older woman with salt and pepper hair named Mrs. Montgomery. When Haley complains to her, Mrs. Montgomery says, "I'm sorry, Haley. Sometimes there's just no way to accommodate all fifteen hundred kids in this school." 

"But—" 

"I looked over your schedule. You're in all the other classes you wanted." 

"But I wanted—" 

"I'm sorry, Haley, there's just nothing I can do. I think it's time for you to get back to class." 

Haley officially hates the first day of school, and when seventh period rolls around, it is not without resentment that she approaches the door to her new English class. 

She doesn't know anyone in her new English class – the product of spending six years with higher level students – except for Brooke Davis, who is leaning against a desk and batting her eyelashes at some boy Haley doesn't know. 

The bell rings and everybody takes their seats. Haley, who had been standing in the doorway, is last to sit down and is left with no choice but to sit next to Brooke. 

The teacher stands up from her desk. She is young and blonde and look like she is about to make the first-day-of-school-welcome-to-my-class speech. 

"Good morning," she says. "Or rather, good afternoon. It's the last period of the day and I suppose you all I just raring to get out of here," She sounds rather perky. "But, and I'm telling you, right off the bat," her voice has gone all low and deadly, "this does not mean I will tolerate any kind of unruly behavior on your part. This is a serious class. 

"Ok." Back to perky. "Now, that I've said that. Let me introduce myself. I'm Ms. Hart." 

"Um, duh," Haley hears Brooke whisper. "It's written on the board." Haley looks up for the first time since she came in the classroom, and sure enough, it is written on the board. 

"I'm 23 years old and this is my second year of teaching." 

"We'll be able to walk all over her," Haley hears Brooke whisper again, probably to the boy sitting next to her, the one she had been batting her eyelashes at earlier. 

Haley, however, doubts that they will be able to walk all over her. She is still hearing the echoes of that low and deadly voice. 

"I'm originally from Kansas – " 

"Corn-fed hick," Brooke whispers. 

"But I went to Duke University, where I majored in English, and I liked North Carolina so much that I decided to stay." 

That perky voice is really starting to grate on Haley's nerves. 

"I'm very bad with names. So if you'll please at least stay in the seats you're in for the next couple of weeks, I'd really appreciate it." 

"Yeah, right," Brooke whispers. 

"Okay, here's what we're going to do. We're going to get to know the person next to us." 

She is talking to them like they were babies. And the person next to Haley is… 

Brooke. 

Brooke first turns to the guy on her left, the one she had been flirting with earlier, but obviously her flirting attempts hadn't worked, because he had turned to the other girl sitting next to him, so Brooke, with a slightly disgusted look on her face, turns to face Haley. 

Haley likes Brooke's clothes. She's wearing a red halter top and blue jeans. Brooke always seems so put together. Haley wishes she was like that. 

"Hey, Haley," Brooke says. 

"Hi, Brooke," Haley says, looking at her hands. The nail polish is chipped. She glances over at Brooke's hands. They're perfect; just like everything else about her. 

"So, let's just get some particulars and get this over with, 'kay?" 

"Like what?" 

"Well, how old are you?" 

"Sixteen. I'll be seventeen in November." 

"Oh. So you're a young seventeen. I'm a very old seventeen. I was born in January. My favorite color is pink. What's yours?" 

"Green." 

"Green's a good color. I always wanted green eyes. My eyes look kinda green when I wear green shirts, but not really." 

"My eyes do that, too!" 

"You, tutor, right? I cheerlead." 

Haley nods. "Yeah, I knew that. I watch you sometimes. When the games get boring. I don't like sports that much, but I like watching the cheerleaders build pyramids and dance and stuff." 

Brooke smiles at her and she smiles back. 

"Um…What else, what else? I like mac and cheese," Brooke says. 

"So do I," Haley grins. 

A pause. 

"I guess that's it," Brooke says, and turns away. Haley is a little sorry when she does. 

"So," Lucas asks a little while later, when they are on their way home from school, "How was your first day? How was – " a dramatic pause – "_regular English_?" 

"It was okay. You know who's in it?" 

"Who?" 

"Brooke. And I think you know – maybe you were right about me getting to know her. If I got to know her then I'd like her. Maybe that's right. Maybe I should. 'Cause we did have to talk today and we both like mac and cheese, you know?" 

Haley knows she has a tendency to babble and at some point she can make herself shut up. She shut up. 

"Well, that's good, I think, really good. I'd like the two of you to be friends, especially since I'm dating her." 

"Yeah." 

"Hey, are you working tonight?" Lucas asks, stopping and turning towards her. 

"Yes." 

"Are you going to stick around after your shift and eat dinner with us?" 

"Yeah, probably. Unless it's chili. I can't stand chili. Why?" 

Lucas hesitates for a moment and then says, "I'm bringing Brooke. Mom doesn't really know her, and I'd like her to, and you just said –" 

"Forget about what I just said," Haley says suddenly. She feels sick at the thought of eating dinner with Brooke. 

"But you just said –" 

"And then I said forget about it." 

And that settles the matter. 

The next English class, true to the whisper Haley had heard the day before, Brooke sits in a completely different seat. Haley sits in the same one she sat in the day before. And she doesn't know why, but she regrets that she isn't sitting next to Brooke. 

"Good afternoon, class." Ms. Hart smiles at everyone. "Now that the first day's over, it's time to get down to business. Our first unit is poetry." 

Haley hears a few people groan. She thinks Brooke might be one of them. 

"We'll being doing poetry for the next month and half until we move on to the next unit, the short story. You will have to read a poem each night and write a response to it. Then we'll go over it in class. In addition, you have this month and a half to choose a poem and creatively respond to it. You may write another poem, rewrite the poem, illustrate it, or anything else that you can think of to creatively respond to it. Then you will have to write a one and a half or two page paper describing how your response fits the poem." 

Haley thinks she now hears everyone in the class groan. 

"You may," Ms. Hart goes on, "do this in partners." 

Haley doesn't like doing things in partners, so she decides that, if someone does ask her, she will say no. 

They spend the rest of the class going over things like imagery and rhyme scheme and imperfect rhymes, the difference between a sonnet and a villanelle. Not that Haley doesn't know what all these were all ready – she had been in advanced English classes up to this point. 

At the end of class, Haley gathers up her things and is ready to go. She is walking out the door when she feels a hand on her shoulder. She turns around. 

"Hey, Haley," Brooke says. "Do you want to work on the project together?" 

"Sure," Haley says. 


	2. Chapter Two

Nathan is lying on her bed and he has one of the juggling balls that Haley used to practice with when she wanted to be a clown. He's throwing it up and catching it and throwing it up and catching it. Haley is sitting next to him on the bed, Calculus textbook in her lap, pencil drumming on the page. 

"So," says Nathan, not looking at her, but staring at the ceiling, "Are you really going to be doing a project with Brooke?" 

"Yeah," Haley says for what was perhaps the fourth time, "I'm really going to be doing a project with Brooke." She closes her textbook in an I'll-do-this-later defeat, and puts it on her bed stand. 

Nathan finally turns his head to look at her. 

"And you…and you want to?" 

"No Nathan, of course I don't. I don't want to be in that class, remember? I should be in AP Lit. It's not fair." 

"No, I know," he says, throwing the ball into the air and catching it. "I'm asking you, do you really want to do his project with _Brooke?" _

"Um, well…" says Haley. She shifts uncomfortably. 

She does. She just doesn't know why. 

"You do!" Nathan exclaims. "Haley, the only reason she even asked you to do the project with her was so that she could use you. She always does. You know that. Or," he paused, "at least, you should." 

Haley says, "Um." 

Nathan turns away and goes back to throwing his ball at the ceiling. Haley leans back against the bed. She wonders why she does want to work with Brooke. For the past few days her thoughts about Brooke have been…nothing short of bewildering. 

Haley remembers how Brooke smiled at her when Haley said she watched Brooke cheerlead, and how she had smiled back; she remembers the fluttering, sick feeling she had gotten when Lucas had told her that Brooke was coming to dinner; she remembered the pleasure she felt when Brooke asked her to work with her on the project; and on top of all that, she had just defended Brooke to Nathan. 

She wonders what's going on with her. She thinks she might be going crazy. 

Without turning over, Nathan asks, "What poem are you doing, anyway?" 

"I don't know. I gave her a couple of poems and she's picking." 

"Really?" Nathan says, still not looking over at her. 

"Yeah, really. Come on, Nathan, even she's capable of picking out a poem." 

"What did you give her?" 

"Two Byron, two Shelley, Keats. Romantic stuff. You know." 

"Love stuff." 

"No. Not Romantic stuff like that. Like the philosophy and the literary movement and well…" She stops. Nathan isn't interested. 

"So what are we doing tonight?" he asks, throwing the ball into the air again. 

"I thought we could stay in. Order a pizza. My parents are away this weekend." 

"Really?" He pulls her down and into a deep kiss. And, for some reason, she is slightly irritated by this. 

There are five Davises is the phone directory, and after the first one yields nothing, Haley decides to call Lucas. He answers, "Yes?" 

She feels obligated to explain. "Hi, yes, it's me. I need, um, I need Brooke's phone number…because of - we've got – you know – the project." 

"Yeah," says Lucas. "Do you have a piece of paper?" 

"Yeah." 

"Okay. It's 555-0621." 

"555-0621. Got it. Thanks." 

"All right. Bye." 

"Bye." 

Haley calls Brooke and when Brooke answers, she forgets everything she had planned to say. She even forgets to say, "Hi, this is Haley." Brooke, on the other end is saying, "Hello? Hello? Is anybody there?" 

Finally: "Yeah, it's me, Haley." 

"Oh, hi, Haley." Haley could hear her smile. 

"Look, I was wondering, when do you want to come over to do the project?" 

"I can come over right now if you want." 

"Really?" says Haley, a bit excited. 

"Yeah, sure. Just give me a couple of minutes." 

"Okay," Haley breathes. 

Fifteen minutes later, Brooke and Haley are sitting on Haley's bed, a book of English poems between them. Brooke is wearing a low cut black top. Haley likes it. 

"So, did you pick one?" Haley asks, looking at Brooke's top. 

"Yeah," Brooke grins. "I really liked them – " 

_You did?_

Haley looks up. 

"But this was the one that I liked the best." She flips through the pages to one she had bookmarked with a post-it note. 

"She walks in beauty, like the night," Haley breathes. "That's my favorite." 

"Yeah. And I guess it's my favorite too." 

"So what are we going to do?" 

Brooke shifts. "Well. I was wondering what your creative strengths were. My only ones are…well, I dance. I guess you knew that, though, 'cause you watch me cheerlead. But I mean, it doesn't stop there. I used to take ballet and modern and stuff. And I'm beautiful," she adds, as an afterthought. "But it should be something we both come up with, you know?" 

Nathan is completely wrong about Brooke. Brooke is actually doing work. 

Haley is silent for a moment. "I sing. And I play piano." 

"Really? Can you sing something for me?" 

Haley blushes. "Right now?" 

"Yeah, right now." 

Haley hesitates. "Well…" 

"Go on. Please. For me," Brooke says, in a whining, pleading voice that Haley found hard to resist. 

"Okay." Haley takes a deep breath. "It doesn't mean much, it doesn't mean anything at all, the life I've left behind me is a cold room. I've crossed the last line from where I can't return, where every step I took in faith betrayed me and led me from my home." 

"And sweet, sweet surrender is all that I have to give," Brooke finishes with her. "I didn't know that you liked Sarah Mclachlan." 

"I love her." 

"So do I. And you, Haley James, have a wonderful voice." 

They smile at each other. The smile seems to go on forever. Haley doesn't know why, but her heart keeps skipping a beats. 

Brooke checks her watch. "Look I've got a date with Lucas." 

"Oh. Yeah. That's fine. I mean – yeah, that's fine. Ok. So, I'll see you – " 

"Next weekend," Brooke says. "I'll come over next weekend." 

_That's not soon enough. _

Haley walks Brooke to the door, and just as Brooke breezed out, Nathan calls, and says, "Do you want to got to a movie?" 

_Yes. Anything to distract me from – _

From what? Anything to distract you from what? 

"Yeah, sure." 

They see the movie – it is an action movie because Nathan wants to see it and Haley has given up on trying to argue with him. He holds her hand and makes out with her half way through it and she is irritated again and can't seem to concentrate. She thinks about the project and how they'd be able to combine their talents. 

_I used to take ballet and modern and stuff. And I'm beautiful_. 

She is, Haley thinks. 

_And you, Haley James, have a wonderful voice._

She wonders if that was the nicest thing that anybody had ever said to her. She concludes it probably is. 

After the movie, they go out to dinner. Haley picks at her macaroni and thinks of Brooke. 

"So," Nathan says, "How's the project going?" 

"It's going good. Really good. She picked out a poem. 'She walks in beauty like the night of cloudless climes and starry skies, and all that's – '" She stops. Nathan wasn't listening. 

"Basketball try-outs start soon." 

_Is that all he ever thinks about?_

"That's how much practice we have. It's not even time for basketball season to start and already Whitey's making us work." He snorts. 

"Yeah…" said Haley. 

She wonders when the rift between them grew. 

She wonders how big it is. She wonders if they could ever repair it. 

She wonders if she wants to. 


	3. Chapter Three

Haley sees Brooke in class on Monday, and the following day, and the following day, but they don't talk. It's as if those already tremulous bonds between them had snapped, and Haley is bothered by it. It would be nice if Brooke just said, "Hi," to her when she entered the classroom, or waved when she passed her in the halls. 

But Brooke is ignoring her. 

Still. There's always the weekend. Brooke has to come over this weekend; she promised. 

Lucas again invites her for dinner with Brooke, but she declines, saying to herself, _if she's ignoring me, I'm going to ignore her. _

On Saturday, it looks like it's about to rain. Brooke comes over, and there is an awkward moment where they both stand in the doorway and try to think of what to say. Finally, Haley says, "Let's go to the living room." 

"Okay," Brooke nods, and they go into the living room and sit next to each other on the white couch. 

Haley scratches the back of her neck. "Err…have you thought anymore about the project?" she asks. 

"Well, I've been awfully busy, so I'm sorry, no, not really. Have you?" 

"No," Haley lies. She doesn't want Brooke to thinks that she's over obsessing about it, even though she kind of is. 

"So what are we going to do?" 

"Um…" says Haley. 

Brooke sighs. "I don't want to go home. It's so quiet here. So nice and quiet. Can I stay here? For a couple hours?" 

"Yeah. Sure," Haley grins. "Do you want to work on the project or – ?" 

"Not really. I do school stuff all week, and I'm tired of it. Do you have any good movies?" 

"Maybe…Do you want to look?" Haley walks over to the TV and opens the cabinet underneath. "Lots of Disney movies from when I was a little kid, basically. We have some classics, and I don't know…nothing you'd probably want to watch." 

"Oh…" Brooke walks over and kneels down to look at the videos. 

"We don't buy them much, anymore. We rent them a lot, but there aren't a lot of videos that I find I'm capable of watching more than two times," Haley says. 

"You wanna watch _The Lion King? _" Brooke asks, almost thoughtfully. 

Haley doesn't know why, but she smiles. "Okay." 

"Do you want popcorn?" she asks as she puts the video in. 

"Nah, that's okay." 

"All right." 

They sit down next to each other on the couch, and Brooke's bare leg is touching Haley's bare leg; it is smooth and warm. 

They are silent. 

"You know," Brooke says finally, about half-way through it, "This is basically all I know about _Hamlet_." 

"What?" 

"Yeah. I mean, I never read it or anything, but someone told me that if I watched it, I'd know all the finer parts of _Hamlet_." 

"Except that _Hamlet_ is a tragedy." 

"He didn't tell me that." 

"Come on, you must have known that. 'To be or not to be' – what's he talking about? Guess." 

"Um…death? Killing himself?" 

"Bingo." She laughs. "Although, now that you mention it, _Hamlet_ is a lot like _The Lion King_. Hmm." 

It starts to rain. They can hear the drops pelt the tin roof. 

"Damnit," Brooke says. 

"What?" asks Haley, looking around, and then at Brooke. 

"I walked. I didn't bring my car. I'm going to have to walk home in the rain, unless you could…?" 

"I don't have a car. And my parents are away for the weekend." 

"Damnit." 

"You could, um," Haley said, heart beating fast, "You could, um, stay here. Until the rain stops." 

"It's not going to stop, Haley. I saw it on the news. Not till tomorrow." 

"Then you could stay here tonight." The words are out of Haley's mouth before she even has time to think about them. 

Brooke looks at her for a moment and then nods. "All right. Okay. I will." 

A while later, when they're watching _Aladdin_, Brooke says, "Are your parents ever home?" 

"What?" asks Haley, startled. 

"Your parents. They're never around when I'm here. I mean, I'm not here a lot, but…" 

Haley doesn't speak for a minute. "No, they're never here." 

"Why?" 

"I…I don't know why. Dad's always got work and Mother would rather not be here, and they go on trips a lot but they can't take me because I've got school…" 

"Oh." 

Haley bites her lip. "I used to think when I was little – when they went away, my brothers and sisters would baby sit me – but I used to think that they went away because they didn't like me." 

Brooke nodded. "I know," she says. "I used to think my parents fought because of me." 

"But it's not true." 

"No. It's not true." 

After a moment Brooke closes her eyes and says, "I wish they would just get a divorce." 

Hesitantly, Haley puts a hand on Brooke's shoulder. Brooke's eyes snap open. 

"It's okay," Haley murmurs. 

"No, it's not," Brooke whispers. "It's really not." She places her hand over the Haley's. "Thank you," she says. 

"For what?" 

"I don't know. For everything." 

Haley's about to say that she hasn't done anything, but Brooke's hand is still on her hers and she's finding it hard to form coherent sentences. 

They stare at each other for a moment, then Brooke removes her hand, and Haley quickly drops hers. 

"I um…I um…pizza?" Haley says lamely. 

"Sure. If the delivery guy can get here in this rain. I think we're stranded. Let's just hope the power doesn't go out." 

"Oh, don't say that. It's bad luck. But what do you want on your pizza?" 

"Cheese if that's fine. I don't like toppings." 

"Good. Neither do I." 

The power goes out when their midway through their pizza, about a third of the way into _Beauty and the Beast. _

Haley has no idea what they're going to talk about. Luckily for her, Brooke stands up, and says, "I know it's early, but I'm going to go to bed." 

"Well, where do you want to sleep? I mean, there's my parent's room – " 

"Nah, I think that'd be weird. I'll stay in your room." 

"O-okay," says Haley, who thinks that Brooke, sleeping in the same bed as her, is weird enough. 

"Can I borrow some clothes or something?" Brooke when they are in Haley's room. 

"Yeah. Sure." Haley grabs out a set of pajamas for herself and a set for Brooke, and hands them to her. 

"Thanks," Brooke says. 

Then she takes her shirt off. Haley is overcome with a feeling she can't name, and blushes, but for some reason, she can't look away. And Brooke for some other reason that Haley can't explain, seems to know this, and is slowly undoing the hooks of her bra – there, they're all undone, she's pulling one arm out of the strap, then the other – 

Haley looks away, and then goes into the bathroom to change her clothes. 

When she comes out, Brooke is sitting on the bed, wearing the over-large T-shirt and sweatpants that Haley had given her to sleep in. Haley can't help but look over at her T-shirt and think that _she's not wearing a bra. _

Oh my God. Oh my God. 

"So…" 

"So, good night," Brooke smiles at her, like she had not just been performing a strip tease in front of Haley. 

"Yeah." They get in bed. "Good night." 

Haley wakes only once in the middle of the night, thirsty, but she doesn't get up. 

Brooke's arm is thrown around Haley's chest, and Haley doesn't move. She lies there, and stares at, and thinks very hard. 

But there are no answers to her questions. 


	4. Chapter Four

Brooke wakes up and looks over at Haley, who is still asleep, a small smile playing on her lips. There is a piece of hair in Haley's face, and Brooke brushes it back. Brooke looks down at Haley and wants to kiss her forehead, or her cheek, or her mouth. Her sweet mouth. 

That's it. 

Brooke has to get away or she'll go crazy. Or scream. Or die. Or something. 

Brooke gets up and dresses in some of Haley's clothes. She leaves a note that says _ See you later, tutor girl. I'll return the clothes to you on Monday_. 

She hesitates. 

_ Your friend, Brooke. _

Then she, trying to be as quiet as she can, leaves. 

She almost skips down the street. _ I, _ she thinks, _ just slept in the same in the same bed as Haley James. Take that Nathan. _

_ Oh, my God. I just slept in the same bed as Haley James. And she let me. Maybe she – get a grip, Brooke. She doesn't want you. Not like you want her_ . 

She stops skipping. 

_ You're so stupid. She hates you. She's only talking to you because of the project. Which she only decided to do with you because she felt sorry for you. She thinks you're a charity case. And when the project's over, that's it. She'll never talk to you again. Well, I'll show her. If she doesn't care about me, I don't have to care about her either. I'll just ignore her. Or something. _

But if I ignore her…I don't want to ignore her. It'll just…I don't want to. I mean, I tried it once, and what happened? Well, nothing. 

But do I really want something to happen? 

Damnit. 

Why does life have to be so difficult? 

She frowns and walks around the block a couple times more, trying to think. She has been doing a lot of thinking lately – about Haley. Ever since…oh, well, a long time ago, she supposes. 

Ever since the day last year when she had come into school with glasses on because her contacts were irritating her eyes, and she pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose with one finger… 

Ever since Haley's back pack had broken in the hallway last March and she had to bend down to pick up all her books… 

Ever since she saw Haley running her tongue across the top of her mouth… 

Ever since she had seen Haley and Nathan kissing in the empty Ethics classroom. 

She had felt something then. Something that she didn't know how to describe, not until much, much later. 

But she realized eventually, admitted to herself eventually, that what she felt when she saw Nathan kiss Haley was a jealousy. 

And it took a little bit longer to admit that she was not jealous of Haley for kissing Nathan, but of Nathan for kissing Haley. But she did. 

"Damnit!" Brooke kicks at a stone on the pavement. 

She counts numbers in her head to distract her. _ Two, three…six, seven…eight…I can't believe that she didn't even think about the project even a little bit last week. All the time I was obsessing about it… _

Ten, eleven, twelve… 

The weekend wasn't a total waste though… 

Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen… 

She did let me sleep in her bed… 

Sixteen, seventeen, eighteen… 

But damnit, that was probably only because you practically forced her to. 

Nineteen, twenty, twenty-one… 

Get a grip. 

Twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four… 

Haley let me sleep in her bed…because I made her… 

Twenty-five, twenty six, twenty seven… 

And that strip tease? 

Twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty… 

What are you doing, Brooke? 

Thirty-one, thirty-two, thirty-three… 

Count faster, damn it. 

And in this manner, she proceeded home. 

Lucas invites her to dinner again on Sunday, and she accepts because she thinks Haley might be there. That's what he always tells her anyway. "My mom wants to get to know you. 'Cause you're my girlfriend and all. And Haley might come too." 

So far, Haley hasn't. 

But Brooke keeps going. 

On this particular night, Brooke goes to the café without a prayer of seeing Haley, goes out of habit, just because she's done this before. 

But when she enters, there Haley is, a turkey sandwich and a ginger ale in front of her. Haley looks up quickly at Brooke and then looks down, just as quickly, and Brooke thinks she can see a bit of red in Haley's normally pale cheeks. 

"Hi, Haley," Brooke says, as cheerfully as she can manage, what with the wad stuck in her throat. 

"Hi, Brooke," Haley mumbles. 

Brooke sits down and asks, "What are we having tonight?" 

"Chili," replies Karen. 

"Ooh, I hate chili; can I have a sandwich like Haley?" 

Haley looks up and grins. "I hate chili, too." 

Everyone sits down after a while and Haley and Brooke commence to eat their turkey sandwiches. 

Lucas asks, "How's the project going?" 

"Good, really good," Brooke says, at the same time as Haley says, "It's not really going that great." 

Brooke considers glaring at her, but she doesn't. 

"We don't have a concept yet," Haley continues. "I can't think of one and Brooke – " she pauses and looks accusingly at Brooke – "hasn't been thinking about it. 

That wasn't true. Brooke had thought about it constantly, but she let it slide because she didn't want Haley to know that she had been thinking about it constantly. 

"Let's not talk about this, okay," says Brooke, quickly veering from the subject of anything to do with her and Haley. 

Lucas raises his eyebrow, but says, "Okay." 

"So, Haley," says Karen, "How's school going? We haven't had a chance to talk; the café's been busy and you haven't been coming around that much." 

"Yeah," says Haley, scratching her head. "Yeah, sorry 'bout that. School's fine. I mean, most of my classes are hard, but it's fine. I'm still really pissed off about the regular English thing, though." 

_ She is? _

"Lucas didn't tell me about that," Karen says. 

"I didn't?" 

"No, you didn't." 

"Well, English is my favorite subject, as you know. I mean, Lucas and I have practically dominated all our English classes from the time we were in the first grade. And it wouldn't fit into my schedule this year; and they wouldn't change it. So I'm in regular English. With Brooke." 

She sounds so…deflated when she says "Brooke". 

"No offense." 

Too late. It was taken. 

Haley doesn't like her. At all. Not even as a friend. She digs her nails into her palms to keep herself from crying. 


	5. Chapter Five

**Chapter 5**

Brooke comes up to her during English class on Monday. Haley is surprised but pleased; Brooke never talks to her in class. A piece of hair keeps falling in Brooke's face and she keeps pushing it back. She says, "Hey, Haley." 

Haley says, "Hey, Brooke." 

"Do you, um, want to go on a double date with us?" 

"A wh-what?" 

"You and Nathan and me and Lucas on a double date." 

"I d-don't know." 

"Oh, come on, say you will." 

Haley half-smiles at the encouragement. "All right," she says, "I will." 

Brooke goes to sit down in her seat. Haley watches her as she does. Haley likes the way she walks, hips swinging. 

Haley is having a funny dream. She and Brooke are watching Disney movies again. "Disney characters," Brooke says, "aren't very good kissers." All of a sudden, Haley is a Disney character and she says, "Try me." 

"Okay," Brooke says, and she kisses Haley. 

Haley wakes up; the phone is ringing. She checks her digital clock. The red numbers swim for a moment and then she sees that it's three o'clock in the morning. She groans; who would be calling her at three o'clock in the morning? 

She answers the phone. "Hello," she mumbles. 

"Hello!" says a cheerful voice on the other end. 

Brooke. She could've guess as much. 

"Brooke? Brooke? It's three o'clock. Why the hell are you calling me in the middle of the night? I was _sleeping."_

"Oh, really? I didn't think of that." She honestly sounds like she didn't think of it, and Haley forgives her – slightly. 

"Well," says Haley, "Why are you calling me?" 

"Oh, you'll be so happy. It's wonderful. It's brilliant. It's simply amazing." 

Brooke's enthusiasm is sweet, if not excessively annoying at three o'clock in the morning. 

"Well, what is it?" 

"I have figured out what we can do for our English project." 

There was a pause. "Go on," Brooke says, "Ask me what we can do for our English project." 

"What can we do for out English project?" Haley says. 

"We," Brooke says, "Are going to make a music video." 

Haley rubs her eyes. "We're going to do – " she yawns – "a what?" 

"A music video," Brooke says. "We're going to make a music video. Isn't it wonderful? Isn't it excellent? Isn't it the best idea you've ever heard? I'm sure it is." 

"Yes, Brooke, it's the best idea I've ever heard." 

"You sound a little funny. What's wrong?" 

"Oh…just a…just a funny dream." 

"Oh. Well, I'm sure that just talking to me will make everything all better." 

No, actually, it was making it worse. 

"Yeah…" 

"So what do you think? I mean, tell me. Break my heart if you have to." 

Haley rubs her eyes and lies up in bed. "I'm really, really tired, Brooke – " 

"So what? You can still tell me what you think about it." 

"I like it," she says after a moment. "I like it a lot. It's a really great idea. But I don't think it's going to work. I think that being up so late is playing with your brain." 

"It's not," Brooke insists. "C'mon, with your voice! We can use the poem as lyrics and you can write the music to it – " 

"Stop. Brooke, I really don't think that it's going to work. I don't write music. I just plagiarize." 

"Yeah you do. I saw you once in English class – I walked by and you were scribbling down notes and everything." 

Haley blushes. Music is a very private thing for her, something she keeps secret from everyone else. She sang in front of Nathan once, but she never sang anything she'd written for him. And now Brooke is asking her to write music for her. 

Brooke's still talking, "And then there's me, right? And I can dance, which we've established already. And I'm beautiful – well, really, you're beautiful, too – so I could be, well I guess, we both could be the woman in the poem and – Haley?" 

Haley's head is still swimming at the possibility of sharing her music. For some reason, the thought of playing something that she's written for Brooke and for Brooke alone doesn't freak her out, but the whole class would eventually end up seeing the music video… 

"Haley, are you there? C'mon, Haley, what do you think?" 

"I don't know. Maybe." 

"Maybe?" Brooke whines. "Say yes, Haley, please! Please, please, please! With lots of cherries and whipped cream and steamy hot sex on top?" 

"Oh, all right." 

"Yes! You won't be sorry! I promise!" 

"All right then – I'm gonna go back to bed now." 

"Oh, don't do that. I just had a double shot of espresso." 

"Brooke – " 

"Please, please, please, please, please!" 

There was something irresistible about her entreaties, and Haley sort of wanted to talk to her, so she said, "Okay." 

"Good. What should we talk about?" 

"Tell me about your dream." 

Haley feels her face heat up. "Well, um, it wasn't anything, not really." 

"Are you sure? 'Cause you sounded really weird when you answered the phone." Haley's cheeks are flaming now. "Yes, it wasn't anything." 

There is silence. "Haley," Brooke says, "You can go to sleep if you want to. Just don't hang up. Okay?" 

"Okay." 

And it's kind of nice, listening to the sound of Brooke's breathing, as she falls asleep. 


End file.
